Industrial property: protection of Community design

While awaiting the Opinion of the European Parliament which is expected on 16 June, the Council took note of a progress report on the amended proposal for a Regulation on Community designs. The original proposal, together with a proposal for a Directive on the legal protection of designs, was presented to the Council by the Commission in December 1993. The purpose of the proposal for a Regulation is to create a Community legal protection system for designs. In accordance with the decision of the European Council of 29 October 1993, the Community design will be administered by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (trademarks and designs). The purpose of the directive, adopted on 13 October 1998, is to approximate the laws of the Member States on the legal protection of designs in order to reduce the legal obstacles to the free movement of goods to which designs are applied. Following the adoption of the Directive, the Commission submitted and amended proposal for a Regulation on 21 June 1999, which takes into account the final version of the Directive and amends the legal basis (Article 308 - consultation procedure, instead of Article 95 - codecision procedure). The Commission has announced its intention of submitting a further amended proposal to take account of the Opinion of the European Parliament.�